Important Care and Activity Preferences in a Nationally Representative Sample of Nursing Home Residents.
Tonya J Roberts, Andrea Gilmore-Bykovskyi, Maichou Lor and 3 others
PMID 28843525WHAT IT FOUND
Nursing home residents rated family involvement, caring for belongings, choosing bedtime, and getting fresh air as highly important.
Depression and cognitive impairment were linked to lower ratings of many preferences. Race and gender also predicted which items mattered most to each resident.
Key findings
01Over 80% of residents rated having family involved as very important, while fewer than 40% rated being around animals or locking belongings as very important.
02Residents with possible depression or cognitive impairment had lower odds of rating nearly half of the care and activity preferences as important.
03African Americans and Hispanics were more likely than Caucasians to report most preferences as important, while females were more likely than males to rate five preferences as important.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
Only residents who could complete the interview versions of the assessments were included, so results do not apply to those with severe impairment who require proxy reporting. The study used admission assessments, which may reflect preferences before residents adapt to facility routines. Assessor, facility, and geographic effects were not controlled. The study did not examine whether residents were appropriately screened for the interview version of the preference assessment.
Declared interests
The study was supported by the U.S. Government, Non-P.H.S. The authors did not report other conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that residents with depression or cognitive impairment have no preferences. Their lower ratings of importance may reflect their condition rather than a true lack of desire for care choices, so additional assessment and proxy reporting may be needed.